Jo Martinez sits beside Henry Morgan on the gurney in the stark white lab. She has learned to work with Henry after her initial impression that she did not want him to be her assigned partner at all. After her last partner, Sean, died in the most recent reproductive riots, the officials found Henry for her, but Jo has been too busy grieving to do her civic duty.

The Department of Reproduction doesn't care about emotions or grief. They care that the human population is dying with most adults being effectively sterile. As sterile as the room Jo founds herself in now with her government-mandated partner.

Because of the plague killing almost all the babies, it doesn't matter that Jo is a woman in her 30s. As long as she is still able to ovulate and hasn't gone into menopause, she is required to produce children with Henry. The Department of Reproduction knows that Jo and Henry are genetically compatible from the samples they had on file for her, and they have great hopes for their combined success.

Henry Morgan is a wild card, though. His genetic samples had been erased from the system after he'd been paired with her. No one really knows his origins, which is a near impossibility in their dwindling society. There seems to be few personal mysteries any more since the one mystery everyone focuses on is why everyone is dying around them.

Henry puts his hand over Jo's in a gentlemanly way. "I am sorry if this question will embarrass you. These are trying times. Do you want to do this medically or…?"

The pause that fills the room references whether or not they will exchange body fluids. She had with Sean. They had fallen in love despite the fact that most mandated reproduction partners don't and that doing so is very much discouraged. For most of the matched pairs, it is just a citizen's responsibility with no emotion. Unfortunately, the sum of her and Sean's emotions did not amount to them having any children together or keeping him alive and safe from the riots.

Jo sighs. They would be watched either way, but old-fashioned procreation versus medically-assisted implantation of an embryo was slightly more private. While Henry is strange, he also appears to be kind. She decides to take a chance on his kindness.

"Or," she says at last minimally. It's a decision at least. It's something.